We all know poker players don’t earn “salaries” as such, even those who play seriously full-time. Since they don’t have salaries, how can players know how much money they will make? Is it all just a big gamble, or can players really estimate how much money they will win (or lose)?

The fact is, poker players can make such estimations, primarily by using their current win rate as a means to judge how they will do over a given period of time.

For those who play poker online, there are many types of software that can track your play in various ways, including calculating your win rate. Normally win rate is defined by big blinds won or lost per 100 hands played, expressed as BB / 100. It can also be defined as money won or lost per 100 hands played, or money / 100.

If you are a live player, you will have to track your results manually, although there, too, you can find apps to help with such record keeping. In the case of live play, often players calculate their win rate by how much money they win or lose per hour played (money / hour) or as big blinds per hour (BB / hour).

To help make win rates more understandable, let’s imagine two types of players, player X and player Y.

If player X has a win rate of 10 BB / 100 and he plays a $0.50/$1 pot-limit Omaha cash game, that means he makes $10 every 100 hands he plays. If player